Troubleshooting
I made a mistake — can it be undone?
If it has not left your company, nearly always yes. If it went out or was sealed, it is not undone: it is corrected and flagged.
**One rule covers everything: what has not yet left your company can be fixed; what has gone out or been sealed is not deleted — it is corrected on top, and flagged.** That tells you which case you are in before you read any further.
The four cases
| What you did | Can it be undone? |
|---|---|
| Something only you can see | Yes, straightforwardly |
| A send that has not gone out yet | Yes, if you are in time |
| A send that has gone out | Not deleted: cancelled or corrected, and flagged |
| **Something certified or signed** | **No. That is the point of certifying it** |
Important
**The worst thing you can do is cover it up.** Rebuilding a document with an earlier date, deleting the trace of a send, or quietly sending the right one and hoping nobody looks at the other turns an ordinary mistake —the kind that happens daily— into something that looks deliberate. Correcting on top and saying so leaves a history explainable in two sentences; covering up leaves one that cannot be explained.
The right order
- 1
Stop before touching anything else
Most big messes start with three quick fixes in a row.
- 2
Check whether what you did has already left
That is the question that decides everything else.
- 3
Correct on top, without deleting the previous version
The previous version is what explains why there is a correction.
- 4
And tell whoever received it, even if they have not looked
A two-line heads-up saves next week's entire conversation.
Watch out
It helps to know in advance what is genuinely final: **certified material cannot be edited or deleted, and that is not a limitation but its reason for existing**. A seal you could redo would prove nothing. If you sealed the wrong thing, the way out is not deleting it: it is sealing the right one and recording that the first was superseded — which is exactly how any serious record gets corrected.
›Can I delete a document I uploaded?
It depends whether it is already in someone else's file or certified. Check first.
›What if someone else made the mistake?
Same route. What does not help is fixing it without telling them.
›Is there a record that I corrected?
Yes, and you want there to be: it shows it was spotted and acted on.
A real case
The situation
A request goes out with the wrong document attached and nobody has opened it yet.
What you do
- Corrects the request and gives a two-line heads-up that the previous one is void
What you get
The recipient knows which to act on and the history explains itself.
The situation
An old version of a contract is certified by mistake.
What you do
- Certifies the correct version and records that the first was superseded
What you get
The correction holds precisely because certified material cannot be rewritten.
The situation
The error is caught before it leaves the company.
What you do
- Corrects it and sends again
What you get
The other side never sees the bad version.
The situation
The document has been sent but nobody has opened it.
What you do
- Cancels the send and sends the corrected one
What you get
The error closes before it does damage.
The situation
The document is already signed.
What you do
- Issues a correction and notifies the signers
What you get
Both versions are on record, and why.
The situation
The document has already been timestamped.
What you do
- Timestamps the correction too
What you get
Both dates exist and the history is explicable.
This article answers
- how to undo a send
- i deleted something by accident
- can i cancel what i sent
- i made a mistake what now